You just found some odd worms eating holes in your maple tree
leaves. How do you know
what they are?

Until now, you could only search for an expert, visit the
library or take a guess.

Now, though, you have the knowledge and photographs of the
South's best experts at your
fingertips -- if your fingertips rest on a computer keyboard.

The Southern Forest Insect Work Conference, a group of forest
entomologists, has put
200 full-color images of forest insects and damage on two CD-ROM
disks.

They added a full-color booklet that includes:

* Thumbnail photos of the images.

* Scientific and common names.

* Descriptions of the images.

* The photographers' names and affiliations.

The two-volume set is entitled 'Forest Insects and Their
Damage.'

"This CD-ROM set is ... unique in the world as far as we
know," said Keith Douce, a University
of Georgia Extension Service entomologist.

Douce coordinated the 18-month project. He worked with
Extension computer specialist
B.T. Watson and forester David Moorhead. The project was
supported by the conference and
the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Forest Health
Unit, in Atlanta.

G.J. Lenhard, a Louisiana State University research
entomologist and curator of the
conference slide series, provided many slides.

Entomologists now have a quick, accurate resource to help
identify insects. In fact,
orders have already been shipped to New York, Canada, Vermont,
Oregon and throughout the
South.

But it isn't just for professional entomologists and
foresters. Teachers, landowners,
commercial pesticide applicators, journalists and others can use
it, too.

The CD-ROM set can be used with any software that supports
the Kodak Photo CD (.PCD)
format. The Kodak Access software included with the CDs works
with PC and Mac.

To order a set for $25, contact Douce at P.O. Box 1209,
Tifton, GA 31793. Or phone
(912) 386-3424. Or fax (912) 386-7133.

Georgia county Extension agents will also use the CD-ROM set
as a quick teaching and
identification aid for the public.

As for those odd worms on your maple tree? Check out slide
number 15, showing the
green-striped mapleworm larva.